There are some Towns and Cities where poker is not just a game, but a way of life! we take a brief look at the more famous places to poker.

In the years after the gold rush of the mid nineteenth century, San Francisco was absolutely hopping to the extent that some of the biggest poker games were played there. Poker rooms were being opened up everywhere and the new wealthy inhabitants took advantage and gambled there way into the history books. How do we know this? Well, at least 10 of the richest men in the west regularly took their seats to do battle for huge pots of money. Among them James C Flood, the owner of the Big Bonanza mine in Nevada as well as four state senators all of whom made their fortunes buying and selling stock in mines. The highest stakes in history were laid down when these guys met at the poker table with the average jackpots coming in at $50,000 with many often reaching $100,000 - the equivalent to several million dollars these days!

Only the American Civil War could stop this poker crazed town from gambling itself to death but it was precisely this that finally put a halt to the poker boom in Cincinnati where almost every saloon in town had a poker room. Though the town was booming, many of the poker rooms were run by not-so-desirable dodgy river-boat gamblers. Most of the action happened at the Burnet House which was famed for its rich décor first class service so much so that it was named 'the best hotel in the world' by a London Newspaper. This may be true but so too is the fact that the hotel was renowned for the number of crooked gamblers it housed!

It's only thirty years since the only place you could play casino poker in America was in Las Vegas, Nevada. Once the new gambling laws were passed the folks in New Jersey decided to renovate a run down section on the coast and Atlantic City, as we know it today, was re-born. In less than 10 years the region was bringing in over $2bn in revenue from the 10 huge casinos that had been built. For more than 10 years the Slots ruled in Atlantic City but, like all good things, the novelty came to an end and many casinos went bust leaving the big guys like Donald Trump and Steve Wynn to battle it out over what has become the east coast's Vegas. It's difficult to feel sorry for them though